The fiasco regenerated grumbling about Washington’s non-conference scheduling preferences. The general sentiment: Why can’t the Huskies schedule more like Gonzaga?

The argument to throttle up Washington’s non-conference schedule comes in three phrases: It would toughen Washington for the NCAA Tournament. It would help recruiting. It’s just, well, better to have a non-conference schedule populated with teams that carry a number next to their name.

Since Romar has been the coach at Washington, he’s gone a different route. Taking over in 2003, Romar’s teams have not faced more than three ranked opponents in the non-conference portion of their schedule. In 2008, on their way to a sub-.500 season, Washington played No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 21 Syracuse and No. 12 Pittsburgh. The Huskies lost each.

This year, Washington will play two teams who are likely to be ranked during the time of the game. Last Saturday, the Huskies headed to Anaheim, Calif., and played then-15th-ranked Georgetown. Texas A&M is ranked 23rd and will be in Seattle on Dec. 22. It hosts the Citadel (7-5) prior, so, barring a collapse, should be ranked when it comes to Montlake.

Formerly ranked Portland and freshly ranked Texas Tech are also on this season’s schedule which has been derided as soft. The Huskies are rated 17th overall at Realtimerpi.com and fifth in strength of schedule. Gonzaga is 49th and 88th, respectively. Those are the numbers that will be on a graphic in March when everyone debates tournament seeds and entrance. At the moment, the perception of Washington’s schedule as 400-thread-count soft is not supported by the numbers the NCAA Selection Committee uses.

For Romar, scheduling is about balance.

“We want to play enough teams to be tested for conference,” Romar said. “We don’t want to fill up our schedule with top-15 teams because I think in preseason, for instance this year, we have a lot of players we are getting an opportunity to play and see who is going to make our rotation. Who’s going to make us the best team come conference?

“If we were playing a schedule where over half our games were top-15 teams, those games would probably be so close we wouldn’t have the luxury of doing that. So, you want to make sure you’re making a schedule that is competitive, but at the same time you want to be able to give your team a little breathing room to grow and make mistakes.”

That same idea is present on the football side at Washington. After consecutive years with a head-scratching lineup of power opponents, the Huskies decided to scale the non-Pac-10 portion of the schedule back, signing to play Eastern Washington and dropping BYU. The argument for that type of move is to allow player development. If you’re fighting for your life every game, then it is more difficult to cultivate the overall program.

The difference between Gonzaga’s scheduling approach and Washington’s can simply be boiled down to what conference the schools are in. Traditionally Washington will play multiple games against top-25 opponents during Pac-10 play. In the West Coast Conference, Gonzaga will not. One conference stumble would hurt the Bulldogs immensely. In this down year for the Pac-10, Washington will not face powers as it has in the past. But that’s not the norm.

In 2007, Washington played 10 games against ranked teams during Pac-10 play. The Huskies played seven ranked conference opponents in 2008. Washington didn’t make the NCAA Tournament either season.

It did in 2006, losing in the Sweet 16 to Connecticut, after playing only three games against ranked opponents all season. One in non-conference play, which happened to be No. 6 Gonzaga, and two in conference.

The lighter non-conference schedule works for UCLA.

When the Bruins went on a three-year run of reaching the Final Four, from 2006 to 2008, they used a light non-conference schedule in getting there.

In 2006, UCLA played two ranked teams during non-conference. It played one game on the road and three at neutral sites.

Much of the same in 2007. The Bruins played zero road games in non-conference and four at neutral sites. They played two ranked teams.

UCLA played two ranked teams in 2008 during the non-conference schedule. One non-conference game was played on the road and three at neutral sites.

Same goes for last year’s NCAA champion, North Carolina. The Tar Heels played two ranked opponents in 2008-09 non-conference play. Two of the games were on the road, one at UC Santa Barbara, essentially giving the Heels a break on their way to Maui. Five games were played at neutral locations, though one was played in Detroit against Michigan State. Not much neutral about that.

The Huskies head to a loaded field in Maui next season where Washington will join Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Virginia, Wichita State and host Chaminade University. Those will be stern early tests over Thanksgiving.

But for Romar, the scheduling approach is not about to change.

“We can’t schedule based on what people think,” Romar said. “We have to schedule based on what’s best for our program.”